


For all Intents and Purposes

by AMidnightDreary



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Avenger Loki (Marvel), Avengers Family, Domestic Avengers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fights, Happy Ending, Humor, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Implied Sexual Content, Lack of Communication, Loki (Marvel) Feels, Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, M/M, POV Outsider, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:28:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22377982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AMidnightDreary/pseuds/AMidnightDreary
Summary: Tony and Loki are fighting. Nobody in the tower enjoys that.
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Tony Stark, Clint Barton & Loki, Loki & Natasha Romanov, Loki & Thor (Marvel), Loki/Tony Stark, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark
Comments: 42
Kudos: 432





	For all Intents and Purposes

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this last night at about 3am because I couldn't sleep, so... No idea what this is, exactly, but enjoy? I guess?

**1**

When Thor learned that Loki and Tony were, for all intents and purposes, a couple, he was pleasantly surprised. After everything he'd been through, Loki deserves all the happiness in the world, and if he found it with Tony? _Good._ Thor was happy for his brother. Really.

He is considerably less happy now.

"Loki," he says, still half asleep. "Loki, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like?" Loki replies, his tone eerily calm.

Thor mulls over the question for a moment. The answer is very obvious. It's in the middle of the night, Loki is in his sleeping clothes, and he dragged a blanket and a pillow to Thor's floor. He is now busy arranging them on Thor's sofa. Considering the row of loud and careless curses that woke Thor up, Thor can guess what happened well enough.

"Is Tony alright?" He asks carefully.

Loku looks at him for the first time, and he does not look happy. "Is Tony alright?" He repeats, staring at Thor with unhidden indignation. "Is _he_ alright?"

Okay, so that was obviously the wrong question. "Sorry," Thor says. "I just meant -"

"Oh, I know what you meant." Loki gives the sofa a well-aimed kick, making it gleam green for a second. It becomes both broader and wider, so that Loki can sleep on it comfortably.

Thor watches with growing concern. Even he knows that kicking things is usually not necessary to magically change the form them. "Loki. Are _you_ alright?"

"Splendid, thank you," Loki says. He stares down at the blanket, glaring at it long enough that the little Iron Man helmets on it turn into tiny images of Loki's helmet. "I'm going to go to sleep now, so please go somewhere else."

Thor sighs. "This _is_ my living room."

"Be happy I'm not demanding your bed," Loki snaps and finally lies down. He rolls onto his side, facing the backrest of the sofa, and pulls the blanket so far up that it almost covers his head.

Thor just stands around next to the sofa for a second, helpless. So, Loki and Tony had a fight. That's… new. They haven't been together for all too long, and until now everything has been going well. As far as Thor knows, that is. 

But fights are normal, right? Couples fight sometimes, that doesn't technically mean that they are not a couple anymore. It just means that Loki will sleep here tonight, and then they will talk and make up. Probably. Hopefully. 

Thor knows that Loki moving in with Thor would _not_ work well in the long haul. But for the moment, it's fine - actually, it's _good._ Thor is glad Loki came here rather than running off to who knows where; now Thor can stay with him and find out if he needs to break a few bones of the man who hurt his little brother. But first -

"Loki?"

_"What."_

"Do you want ice cream?"

It's silent for a long moment, then Loki answers with a muffled, "Yes."

Thor leans down to give the blanket pile a comforting pat and then shuffles to the fridge.

**2**

When Bruce learned that Loki and Tony were, for all intents and purposes, a couple, he was… vaguely concerned. Because Tony is chaotic enough on his own; does he really _need_ a literal chaos god at his side?

Yes. Yes, he does - that's what Bruce decided after watching them for a while, because honestly? They are goddamn adorable. Fine, they also make things explode now and then, but Bruce doesn't really have the right to judge other people for committing any sort of vandalism. And you can't really be mad at either of them, not when you catch them smiling at each other like they do. (They smile at each other like there is no other person in the universe they would rather be smiling at; they smile at each other like they have finally discovered what smiles are even for.)

So, yes. Adorable.

Much less adorable when Tony wakes him up in the middle of the night because, "Bruce, I need to use your lab."

Said with the urgency of someone who needs to use the nearest toilet very soon and very badly.

"What?" Bruce slurs, because he is still in bed and no, he is not properly awake yet.

"Your lab," Tony repeats.

Bruce scrambles to sit up and switch on the nightstand. He fishes for his glasses and yes, there Tony is - standing in the doorframe to Bruce's bedroom and looking absolutely miserable.

Bruce stares at him. "What happened?"

"Nothing happened," Tony says sourly, which means that something did happen. "I need to -"

"What's wrong with your own -"

"I don't _want_ to be in mine, I-"

"Okay," Bruce interrupts. "Okay. Of course you can use mine.'

Anthony's shoulders sag with obvious relief, but he doesn't leave. Bruce is confused - because Tony doesn't really need to _be_ here in the first place. He owns the tower, after all, and even though he respects the privacy of his friends, getting into Bruce's lab would be easy for Tony. And he even knows that Bruce wouldn't actually mind it if Tony used his lab; they work with each other often enough. So why is Tony here?

Because he doesn't want to be in his own workshop, and because he doesn't want to be in Bruce's lab _alone._

So Bruce sighs and pushes his glasses up to rub his eyes, and then he gets out of bed. "What do you want to work on?"

"Anything's fine," Tony says. "But you don't have to -"

"Yes, sure, I know. It's okay."

They leave the bedroom, and Bruce notices just how miserable Tony really looks. It's the sort of miserable that makes Bruce want to place him on the sofa and watch awful cartoons with him. Maybe feed him ice cream? What do people _do_ in situations like this?

"You look tired," Bruce says, which. Wonderful. Good idea. What does he want to achieve with that, exactly.

"Loki stole my bedding," Tony says. It doesn't explain much.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Uh. Give me two minutes."

Tony nods, and Bruce drags himself into the bathroom to pee. So, Tony and Loki probably had a fight. Tony only looks like this when he had a fight with someone he cares about, and at the moment Loki is on top of that list. It must have been bad, otherwise Tony wouldn't have woken Bruce up. Waking people up because he doesn't want to be alone isn't something Tony _does,_ after all. 

Bruce thinks that the rest of the night will entail lots of coffee - or tea, in Bruce's case - and groundbreaking ideas, and also a lot of denial. That's fine, though; it's something Bruce can do for his friend.

He is better at working than at talking, too.

  
  


**3**

When Clint learned that Loki and Tony were, for all intents and purposes, a couple, he knew that shit was going to go _down._

He didn't expect it to go down quite like this, though.

Tony and Loki have been fighting for almost a week now, and the tower is a mess. As it turns out, both are very creative when it comes to pranks, and somehow their fight has already turned into a competition of "Who can make the other's life as difficult and unpleasant as possible? Tune in at two am on Wednesday to find out!"

Nobody knows why they are fighting. Nobody knows if they will ever stop fighting again. Thing is, Clint is very tired of being woken up by shouting in the middle of the night, and he is also very tired of finding this or that room filled to the brim with chicken plushies for reasons no sensibly thinking being could possibly comprehend. Because, really. _Chicken plushies?_ What the fuck.

He spends a considerable amount of time in the vents. Because there, he won't be bothered by any plushies at all, and all screaming is muffled enough that he can ignore it without problems.

So far, so good.

Clint did not expect to - quite literally - bump into _Loki_ while crawling through the vents above Tony's workshop.

"What the actual -"

 _"Shh,"_ Loki hisses, pressing his hand to Clint's mouth to shut him up. He's peering through a ventilation grid down at the workshop.

Clint makes a protesting noise.

"Quiet," Loki tells him in a hushed tone, "or I will send you to Lithuania."

Right. Loki still has that batshit crazy thing going on sometimes. Nonetheless, Clint rolls his eyes and nods, and Loki takes his hand away.

"You know," Clint whispers, "what you're doing here is really fucking creepy."

Loki doesn't even look at him. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I am not alone in these vents at the moment."

"Yeah, but I'm just passing by. You're here to prank him."

"I am not here to prank him."

"Oh, okay, so you're just watching," Clint says. "That's so much better."

"Lithuania is very nice at this time of the year," Loki replies.

Clint thinks it's better to stay silent for a minute or two. They look through the grid and listen to Tony putter around down there. 

Eventually, Clint asks, "Why are you even fighting?"

"What do you care?"

"Uh. Because I live in this tower, and you're both giving off really bad vibes?"

Loki stares stoically downward. "We are fighting because he is an idiot." There's a pause before he quietly adds, "And because I said a few things I probably shouldn't have."

Wait.

"But mostly because he is an idiot," Loki finishes.

Is Loki actually _talking?_ To Clint? Oh god, he is. Fuck. Okay, that's okay. Clint can talk to him. The guy very obviously needs someone to talk to, so Clint will be there.

(So, yeah, what if he feels a little responsible for - read: protective of - Loki ever since the whole scepter business? The guy's head is even messier than Clint's own. And it gets goddamn dark in it sometimes, too.)

"Oh," he says eloquently. "That, er. Sucks. What did you say?"

Loki glances at him, frowning. "Do you remember the battle last week?"

"Sure."

"After, I told him that he should be more careful."

Ah. Yes, Clint can see how Tony might not like that. Especially not from a god who is about twenty times stronger than he is.

"So, let me guess, he took that down the wrong pipe."

"Yes, quite."

Clint thinks about what to say. What he comes up with is, "He just… He doesn't like being told what to do, you know. But I'm sure he knows that you meant well."

"I'm reasonably sure that he doesn't."

"Nah, he's just stubborn. He's on a 'I don't need you, anyway' trip now , but that won't last forever. He'll just keep on going for a while before he starts missing you too much."

Loki snorts. "Ah, and then he will come back to me? No, I don't think so."

"Oh, come on. This is a fight, not the end of the world. Just get your shit together and talk to him."

"I do not _want_ to talk to him," Loki says, and it's pretty much the least convincing lie he's over told. "He said to my face that he doesn't -"

He cuts himself off. Clint isn't sure how that sentence would have ended, but he can imagine a few options.

"Whatever he said, he didn't mean it," he says. "Tony pushes people away on a daily basis, but he - he doesn't want to push _you_ away for good, I'm sure. He likes you too much for that."

Loki makes a skeptical noise.

"No, he does! Even I can see that. This is just your insecurity talking."

_"I beg your pardon?"_

"No, don't send me to fucking Lithuania, I just - I just mean that you're having a hard time believing that he. You know. Likes you."

Loki stares at him. Clint feels vaguely uncomfortable.

"If you don't want people to know you, don't get into their head," he mutters. 

Loki huffs and turns back to the workshop beneath them, just to flinch back a second later when something hits the grid with a metallic clink.

It's the tiniest drone Clint has ever seen, holding a small piece of paper. Loki frowns and pulls it through the grid. As the drone flies away again, Clints leans over to Loki to read what the paper says. He winces in sympathy when he reads the capital letters in Tony's messy handwriting.

FUCK OFF :)

Loki sighs.

  
  


**4**

When Steve learned that Loki and Tony were, for all intents and purposes, a couple, he briefly wondered if that was the right time to apply for retirement. But then it turned out that the two are a, very happy together and b, a very good team in fights. So Steve did not apply for retirement, because everything that makes his friend happy and them all a better team is good, right?

Right.

"Could you _please_ sort this out at another time?" He says through clenched teeth.

Fighting off Amora's lackeys would be much easier if his ears weren't ringing from the things Tony and Loki have been shouting at each other for almost twenty minutes now.

 _"Apologies, Captain,"_ Loki replies smoothly. _"But we really can't do this at another time, because Anthony doesn't talk to me outside of battles anymore. I'm afraid that makes sorting things out a little difficult."_

"I _am not talking to you anymore? You haven't even_ looked _at me in two weeks!"_

 _"You could like, take out your ear pieces?"_ Clint suggests. _"Some of us actually do need to concentrate a bit."_

 _"No, let them finish,"_ Nat chimes in. _"I think it's kind of entertaining."_

Meanwhile, Loki and Tony are still throwing accusations at each other. Steve is glad that they are at least letting out their anger at their enemies rather than at each other, but then again, he isn't sure if Loki and Tony would even be _capable_ of hurting at each other. Well, at least not physically.

The fight - or fights, rather - go on for quite some time, and in the end it's mostly Steve and Thor who beat Amora; Natasha and Clint are busy keeping the enemies away from Tony and Loki, who are standing in the middle of an evacuated street and haven't yet stopped screaming at each other. It's almost fascinating how long they can do that, and surprising - Steve knows them both well enough by now. Tony isn't someone who shouts his way out of arguments, and neither is Loki. Usually they both don't need to raise their voice to get their point across.

When the fight is over, Steve decides it's about time to get Tony and Loki to stop. Thankfully, they have stopped shouting by the time Steve reaches them, though he isn't sure if this icy silence between them is an improvement. He feels like he isn't.

Tony is sitting on the roof of a car that has seen better times, and he's tugging around at the right boot of his suit. That has also seen better times.

"Can I -" Loki starts, but immediately falls silent when Tony lifts his head and glares at him.

"No," he says. "No, you can _not."_ He looks down again, apparently trying to get the boot off.

"You are only making it worse," Loki says quietly.

"Loki, I _swear to god._ Shut up." 

Loki does shut up.

"I can't -" Tony says, but breaks off with a bitter sounding huff before he starts again, "I can't _believe_ you really said that. It's like nothing I _ever_ told you got past your thick skull."

"Funny," Loki says, his tone flat. "I just thought the same thing."

"Yes, _funny,"_ Tony snaps. "Very funny."

"Anthony -"

"Don't _Anthony_ me!"

Loki presses his lips together. He glances at Steve, who spend the last minutes pretending that he's not even there, and then Loki disappears in a shimmer of green and golden sparks.

Tony stares at the spot for a second. "Fine!" He says, then proceeds prodding at his foot. "Yeah, just run away, that's absolutely fine. Fucking hell."

Steve carefully approaches the car Tony is sitting on. Tony glances at him, but doesn't acknowledge Steve's existence beyond that.

"Tony?”

"Steve," Tony replies, still not looking at him.

"Are you alright?"

"Do I look like I'm alright?"

Steve walks the last steps to the car and leans against it, looking down at Tony's foot. "What happened there?"

"I got stuck," Tony says. "Now the goddamn boot won't come off. Can't fly."

"Thor can bring you back to the tower?"

"Oh, sure. Yeah, I should do that just to piss Loki off."

"Revenge for running away?"

"Yep." He takes a breath and finally leaves his foot alone, wincing a little. “Better not, though.”

He looks tired. That’s nothing new, Tony often looks tired, but now he also looks _sad._

“Why are you fighting?” Steve asks hesitantly; he knows that Tony probably doesn’t want to talk about it, especially not with Steve.

Tony surprises him. “He thinks I’m fragile,” he says, as if _fragile_ is the worst insult humanity came up with.

“Okay,” Steve says slowly. “Did he say that?”

Tony laughs. “No. Nope. Stevie. Loki doesn’t just _say_ what he thinks. You have to pick everything he says when he’s happy and snaps when he’s angry apart to get _some sort of idea_ what might be going on in his head.”

Yes, Steve can imagine that. Still, he frowns. “Then how do you know that he thinks you’re - fragile?”

“He acts like it,” Tony says sharply. “And he doesn’t need to, because I’m _not._ I’m not.”

“Well, compared to him you _are -_ ”

“I _know,_ Steve. Still.”

“He’s just scared to lose you.”

“Yes, sure, but - what am I supposed to do, huh? I can’t make me any less mortal. And anyway, he -” He snorts and looks down, jaws clenching. “He thinks I’ll leave him, long _before_ I die. I can say what I want, he just - doesn’t get it into his head. And I don’t want him to spend the time we have worrying. I want him to be happy.”

“I’m sure he wants the same for you,” Steve says. “He… cares a lot, for you. That's obvious. Maybe he's just not sure how to handle it.”

"Yeah, I mean. Who is?"

Steve has to laugh. "Yes, true, I just - I mean, I don't think he's ever had anything like this."

Tony glances at him only briefly, then says, "I've never had anything like this, either."

Steve nods; he knows that. No member of their team has been very lucky in this regard. "You'll figure it out, Tony. Together."

Tony chooses not to reply. He jumps off the car, which he, judging by his pained curses, probably shouldn’t have done. 

Steve sighs and sets about helping his friend back to the tower.

**5**

When Natasha learned that Loki and Tony were, for all intents and purposes, a couple, she wasn't surprised.

She wasn't surprised when they started fighting, either.

She _is_ surprised when she finds Loki in the training area of the tower, or well - in what _was_ the training area of the tower, really, because now it looks like Bruce went a little big and green in it. Only that Bruce is nowhere to be seen, instead there is Loki, lying in the middle of the big room on the floor and staring at the ceiling.

"Are you _still_ not talking?" Natasha asks. She hasn't figured out yet if she wants to be amused or annoyed.

"Go away," Loki replies, his voice muffled because his underarm is covering his face. "Please."

Natasha frowns. The fact that he said _please_ is worrying. She makes her way past a lot of broken training equipment until she can look down at Loki, who in return refuses to look up at her. He looks like a bit of a mess - like he looks after one of his and Natasha's sparring sessions, although they haven't had such a session since The Fight began.

Loki must have been impressively angry if it made him destroy this entire room. That isn't like him.

"Did you fight again?" Natasha asks. 

"No," Loki replies.

Ah. Maybe not angry at Tony, then. Angry at himself. 

Natasha narrows her eyes. "When did you last talk to him?"

"Tuesday afternoon."

That was the battle against Amora. Today is Friday. Natasha starts to wonder if she is the only adult in this tower. Well, along with Pepper. 

"Go and talk to him," she tells her friend. "Or I will make you talk to him."

"No," Loki says.

Natasha stays where she is for a moment, then gives a mental shrug and leaves the room, already coming up with a plan. It can be considered revenge, really; Loki did just ruin the room she wanted to train in.

Apart from that - Natasha keeps her promises.

It's surprisingly easy to put them both in the same room and make them stay there. To be fair to everyone involved, it wouldn't be this easy without JARVIS' help, and it's the general effort that finally gets Loki and Tony to leave their respective hiding and sulking places.

Bruce pulls Tony out of his science binge with the promise that Steve is making waffles in the community kitchen in this very moment, and Clint stole all ice cream out of the fridge on Thor’s floor so that Thor can convince Loki to go look for more in - you guessed it - the community kitchen. And there Steve is indeed making waffles, more than enough for two, which Tony notices as soon as he comes to stand next to Steve.

“That’s not enough for all of us,” he says, frowning.

Before Steve can say anything, there is another voice complaining about, “Thor, please don’t insult my intelligence by pretending that you can fool me. I know -”

Loki almost swallows his tongue when he sees Tony standing there. Tony freezes, too; there’s waffle batter dripping from his index finger on the floor.

After a moment, Loki looks over his shoulder back at Thor. “I am going to _ruin_ you.”

Thor shrugs, grinning crookedly. “I look forward to letting you try. Tomorrow, maybe? In the -”

“The gym is being renovated,” Natasha says. She’s been sitting on the kitchen table for a while now, watching the long due end of The Fight begin.

“Oh,” Thor says. “Well. Maybe another time, then.”

Natasha slides off the table. “Now, JARVIS.”

 _“Yes, Miss Romanoff,”_ JARVIS replies.

Tony stares at his AI’s nearest cameras in shock. “J. J, what are you doing.”

_“Nothing much, sir. Just keeping Mr. Liesmith from teleporting away. You should thank Dr. Banner for the technics.”_

Loki looks like he is contemplating who he wants to kill first. Tony looks like he isn't sure whether to be annoyed or impressed. Natasha thinks this is a good moment to leave them alone, so she ushers the rest of the Avengers out of the kitchen.

"Natasha," Loki says warningly, but Natasha already closes the door behind herself.

JARVIS locks it, and thus makes sure that everybody's favorite stubborn idiots don't have another choice but get their shit together.

  
  


**+1**

A few weeks later, they all have breakfast together in the very same kitchen they trapped Loki and Tony in. The couple themselves excused themselves about two minutes ago for… obvious reasons.

As soon as the first moan can be heard, Clint groans and lets his forehead collide with the table. "Can't they make it to their bedroom _for once?_ Tony made it soundproof for a fucking reason. _"_

"Sounds like they didn't even make it to the elevator," Bruce says, sounding fascinated despite himself. "Thor, is that - normal?"

The god nods. "Golden apples often have this effect," he says, completely unbothered, and proceeds to inhale one poptart after the other.

"As long as they don't break anything else," Steve says, thinking about the chair that didn't survive for long after the last battle debrief.

"Where are they, on the sofa?" Clint asks, his voice still muffled.

 _"Yes, Agent Barton,"_ JARVIS confirms, sounding amused for some reason.

"We need a new sofa," Clint decides. 

"I think it's adorable," Natasha says, making everyone look at her with varying levels of incredulity. "It's better than all that fighting at any rate."

It seems like nobody has a good argument against that.

  
  



End file.
